June 2018 - Daz 3D New User Challenge - Scenes and Landscapes
Linwelly
Posts: 5,956
New User's Challenge - June 2018
Sponsored by DAZ 3D
Are you new to the 3D World? Are you at the beginning stages of learning 3D rendering? Have you been around for a little bit but feel you could benefit from some feedback or instruction? Have you been around awhile and would like to help other members start their creative journey? Well then come and join the fun as we host our newest render challenge!
"Scenes and Landscapes"
This month's focus will be scenes and landscapes. If you haven't noticed when you look at images made by the various 3D software some of the packages do a lot better then others in treating an expansive scene or a magnificent landscape. Ones that come to mind are software such as Bryce or Vue. Both have some built in features that make those wonderfully big expansive images come true. DAZ Studio on the other hand does not have any handy dandy features built into it but if you know the tricks there is no reason why you can't get those same kinds of results. For this contest we will be exploring the principles of how such scenes and landscapes are built and how to control the environment to create the sense of expansiveness a scene or landscape creates for the viewer.
There are some key elements that should be considered when creating a landscape, they are the inspiration, lighting, perspective and depth of focus. I have gathered some links for you that talk about each of these elements.
Inspiration:
Photos and Renders:
Landscapes
starscape photography
Perspective and Depth of Focus:
What a Painter Considers
What a Photographer Considers
Transform 3D Renders: Part 1
http://blog.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/tutorials/transform-3d-renders-part-1/
Transform 3D Renders: Part 2
http://blog.advancedphotoshop.co.uk/tutorials/transform-3d-renders-part-2/
Bryce 7
Things to consider when setting up your landscape:
As stated by Jon A. Bell in his book, 3ds max 6 Killer Tips, "For more realistic outdoor scenes, especially if you're seeing a distant horizon, you should always add a slight amount of atmospheric haze.... If you look at a distant mountain range (or if you don't have one right outside your window, just grab a travel magazine or pretend), you'll notice how colors become muted and washed out with distance. You can use just a slight amount of atmospheric fog (it depends on the scale of your scene), and the colors will determine the clarity or quality of your "atmosphere." For clear outdoor settings, using a slight bit of white fog is desirable; for sunset or urban settings (where the air might be more polluted), a slight yellowish or reddish cast makes your horizons look better." In DAZ Studio you have a couple of options in getting that affect. The first would be to add just a tiny bit of DOF so that the objects become a bit more blurred and muted. Another way is to have a volumetric camera that will add the fog feature to the render.
Lighting:
Approaching Realism in DAZ Studio and Gamma Correction Demystified
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/54913/
Using HDR Files In DAZ Studio 3delight renders https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okaYS1jeAew
http://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/37753/
and for Iray
http://basic3dtraining.com/truth-ds-iray-hdri-lighting/
Handy tools for DAZ Studio ( note: these can help but are not in any way necessary):
https://www.daz3d.com/terradome-3-iray
https://www.daz3d.com/ultrascatter-advanced-instancing-for-daz-studio
previous challenges and contests on the topic
https://www.daz3d.com/forums/discussion/comment/832212/#Comment_832212
Bryce 7.1
For a list of the current challenge rules, please see this thread : Challenge Rules
Closing Date: June 30, 2018
I will be checking in as will the rest of the Community Volunteers to try and help with anything you all may need.
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Comments
Decided to try another urban landscape this month. A little something to show what I'm thinking about.
wish you all good luck with this one and happy IRaying in DAZ Studio - I'm not any longer participating in any DAZ Forum
bye
My frist test render. A little bland atm, but I'm not sure how I want to add some yet, but it's early yet. Feedback is VERY welcome!
Good start so far, the clouds are a wonderful setting but your main object is a little to small in my eyes.
I would change the camera angle and pull the ship much closer.
Maybe you could search an angle, where we look along the side the of the ship. That would give us a better feeling of the mass, because I think it's a sort of carrier, or I'm wrong?
I like you idea Shinji, with the rather dark landscape and the red eycatcher. right now its a bit too dark to make out the other things. I would suggest to try adding some atmosphere by dust or blook on the red or soemthign of that sort.
Thanks for you're feedback Linwelly. I'll have to see what I can do after I get home this evening.
Novbre, I love that cloud sky ( was thinking of getting that myself). And it already gives you a lot of width and atmosphere. One way to give that width room might be to change the render format to a really wide cinematic format. For that station I would advice to either bring it in close to the front and add something else in a distance (a flyer, a mountaintop) or the otehr way round, so the distance becomes more palpable to the watcher.
That's weird. The "basic3dtraining" link leads to a different site than expected.
Here we are with version b. Adjusted the tone mapping, added some atmospheric haze, and added a vehicle traveling the ruined streets.
I should probably have mentioned that its about the use of HDRI as background and light source in Iray.
@Linwelly
A cinematic ratio is an awesome idea! I will have try that as soon as I get home. I am hesitant to make the station/wharf larger. I don't want it to be the focal point, I want it there more for scale, basically to help sell the expansiveness of the clouds and sky. Would a couple of ships at different ranges from the station work better?
~ Novbre
I used my PC+ discount this month on the Bryce7 pro software. And it is a weird child.
Of course I started to mess with things way over my head.
So I came up with an idea.
I'm thinking of giving it a watercolor or ink paint style in postwork as soon as I made this picture more ... more.
Here's my first version of my image. I realise that the lighting needs some work.
@sueya
Just an idea, maybe have the woman posed so that she is looking at the horse with her back to the camera? I think it would help add more focus on the horse. For me, I forget all about the horse trying to figure out what she's looking at in the foreground lol!
~ Novbre
Very nice start and with Brice on top :D
I would like to give you a similar advice as I gave Novbre, to take something to the front, to make the size rlation even clearer. With the large mountain in the back there is a good start but the dragons are too far off to get good impression of them ( as well if they're ightign or mating I would move the closer to each other)
sueya are you working with HDRI backgrounds here? Or are you using 3delight with a backdrop? I would like to understand what is going on with the lights to give you soem advice. I think It would help if you use a real ground prop to place the horse and the lady at her seat and use Backdrop/HDRI only for the sky.
I found it incredible difficult to place somthing into an HDRI to make it look fitting to the image. ( I was only once successfull so far and there the bakcground was all blurred :D)
double post
I am using HDRI for the sky plus a Mountain Backdrop. I am using 3Delight as my machine isn't powerful enough for Iray. I have used Millenium Environment for scenery before. Should I use it for my ground prop?
Is there difference between those two? ;)
Move them closer to each other is smth, I'm fiddeling in my mind since I uploaded the picture. So this will happen on future iterations.
But the things that bothers me currently, are the proportions between distances and scales in bryce. I've seen some astonishing works, done in bryce only. But right now, I try to figure out, how to achieve some results that are at least showable.
I think the millenium environment is a very suitable prop for your idea pacing your props and figures will be much easier. If you want to keep the sky and the mountain backdrop you use now, you could remove the scenery-sky and clouds that come with it (the clouds might even work with the mountain backdroop...). To create a feeling of distance you could move those far away.
For the shadows you have in your image, I wonder if you turned off the camera headlamp?
Version 2 of my image. I have changed from using the mountains to using a Millenium environment for the setting. I think it is a great improvement. I hope the girl looks like she is looking at the horse.
I think you did good with the girl and her looking at the horse, but you may want to look at were she's sitting on the bench. Looks to me like you've got some overlap going on there.
I like this version! This is just personal preference not a critique, but I would make the horse a bit larger. It looks like a pony is size when you compare it to the picnic table. I do like the background! The haze in the distance is well done and believable.
~ Novbre
@ Everyone - Sorry I've been away dealing with issues. I will attempt to be in more than out in the weeks upcoming.
@sueya - I'm very pleased with the improvements you've made so far. I do agree with @Novbre's comments.
@HighElf - I want to see those dragons as a more prominent feature. I know this is about the landscape, but at their size/distance, it is hard to get a really good feel for the action in the scene. They should at least be a little closer together and/or closer to the viewer. Or something has to function to give the viewer a sense of scale. Landscape/sky look pretty good.
@Shinji Ikar 9th (though I know you won't get this notification--sorry) - I like your scene and the vehicle. I agree with @Linwelly that it could improve a lot with the use of bloom filter in render settings. Also, if you think you might manage it, godrays would be a cool effect for the headlights----I'm not sure how easy that is to do as I'm writing this, so take that bit with a grain of salt.
@seegsons - Though I'm guessing you may not see this, your input will be missed. As difficulat as some of it was to hear, I found several of your insights valid if not delicate.
@Novbre - I think others have made some good suggestions already. I don't want to step on your vision, but it is difficult at this viewpoint to really enjoy the scene/get a sense of the scale. I think that's some sort of base/platform hovering in the air, with clouds below and behind. If that's not right, perhaps the image could be changed to make it more clear to me what I see. Also, if this is a sci-fi image, please consider something else to clue the viewer in to what is being viewed. It doesn't have to be orange clouds or green sky--thankfully, but something more. Little details or a shift in the viewpoint perhaps. I think one of the things I like about Shinji's image is that he's trying to give the view a frame from which to view it--inside the destruction and decay of the scene.
One thing I would suggest to all is that I almost want to see a figure in some of these images--though I realize that might be cliche--looking at the scene with us. Or sometimes I want a frame of reference like a windshield to look through.... or a more creative frame of reference like binoculars--or that thing Luke used in the first Star Wars movie.
Anyway, I'll try to come up with a decent NAE to share--for feedback as well as the challenge of it soon. 'til next time, take care.
@Wanderer, I guess I know what one of the things I'm doing this evening after I get home from work. I'd take a look at things before heading out, but as I type this, I should be heading out the door soon for my bus. Thanks for your feedback, and due to having the thread bookmarked, I'll at least get an email that someone posted.
Ahh... good to know. I hope you are able to get some use of my advice. Take care for now.
I see some nice entries and will follow this thread.
Unfortunately I have a lot of work around the house and free time is rar.
The bigger problem is my PC. In the last time he crashed always when he rendered or when I create big scenes.
Even a cleanup from dust brought no improvement, so I think it's time for a new system. Until then I'm out of the event. :/
Version 3 - I have made the horse a bit larger and made sure the trousers do not intersect with the picnic table
What I miss is some shadows and you should move your background a little more to the rear, because the table and the bench intersect with him.